Break-up of Rohit Sharma’s three doubles: The second half is the better half

Rohit Sharma remained in cruise-mode, going run-a-ball while converting the half-century to a three-figure score. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)

Rohit Sharma epitomises the adage of floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee. While his three double-hundreds have been laced with incessant six-hitting, the most striking feature of each knock has been the manic acceleration that Sharma has produced in the latter half of his innings, almost to the extent that you’d think he’s been playing possum till then.

Floating to fifty

0-50, strike-rate average:72.11; In Bangalore when Sharma scored his maiden ODI double ton against Australia, he reached his half-century in 71 balls with 3 fours and 1 six. At the Eden Gardens during his record-setting 264, he got to the 50-run mark in 72 balls with just 5 fours. Today in Mohali, it came off 65 balls with 5 fours. So on all three occasions, only once has be reached 50 at a strike-rate higher than 70.

The First Surge

50-100, strike-rate average: 123.9; At Bangalore, Sharma launched Xavier Doherty and Glenn Maxwell for 5 sixes in the space of 15 balls and brought up his second 50 runs in 43 balls. At Kolkata, he took only 28 balls to go from 50 to 100, hitting 7 fours in that period. Incidentally, he remained in cruise-mode for a longer period in Mohali, going run-a-ball while converting the half-century to a three-figure score.

After Rohit Sharma finally reached the milestone and blew a kiss to her, Ritika Sajdeh was left in tears of joy. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar singh)

The Gallop

100-150, strike-rate average: 217.3; Getting to a 100 basically becomes a licence to go bonkers for Sharma. It took him 26 balls to get to 150 in Bangalore, in which period he smashed 3 sixes and 5 fours. Correspondingly, he took 25 balls and 18 balls in Kolkata and Mohali respectively. On Wednesday, this period of his innings also coincided with the six-krieg, when he hit Suranga Lakmal for four sixes in an over.

The Blitz

150-200, strike-rate average: 250; Sharma is like a bull to a red rag once he has the 200 in his sights. He needed only 16 balls to become only the third batter to score 200 back in 2013. He hit 6 sixes and 3 fours off those 16 balls. He was slightly conservative during his 264, taking 26 balls — though, he needed 15 to go from 200 to 250 — and here he needed 18 balls to complete the final quarter of his 200.

The 2nd Hundred

Average strike-rate: 232.55; They used to say that a team should always double their total from the 30-over mark. Sharma ends up doubling his own score upon reaching 100, generally well past the 40th over. His second hundred came in 42 balls in Bangalore, 51 balls in Kolkata and just 36 balls in Mohali.

The Sixcapade

It’s not just the rate of his run-scoring that keeps getting a massive fillip as he continues his innings, so does the frequency of the ball flying into orbit. In Bangalore he hit 10 sixes after reaching 100. At Kolkata he hit 8 and today he smashed 11.

The Final Beatdown

Ave strike-rate in last 7 ovs: 309.63; It’s in the last 7 overs that Sharma really cuts loose, and at a strike-rate of over 300 on each occasion. He had hit the Aussies for 75 off 25 in Bangalore with 7 sixes and 90 off 31 with 4 sixes against his beloved Lankans in Kolkata. Here he bettered his assault rate, clobbering 92 off 27 deliveries, including 11 massive sixes.

The Off-side rules

You don’t expect a Sharma innings to ever be a slog. And he has numbers to prove for it. It’s only today in Mohali that he favoured the leg-side more during each of his double-tons, scoring 58 per cent of his runs in that direction — mind you, most of them came in the death overs. He favoured both sides of the wicket nearly with the same zeal in Bangalore. But 56 per cent runs of his 264 came through the off-side, so did nearly 65 per cent of his 33 boundaries that day.